Natalie Portman's treatment by Moby is a master class in misogyny beta-male | Arwa Mahdawi | Opinion



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IIf someone had pronounced the word "Moby" a week ago, there is a good chance that the first thing you thought was "Dick". That probably has not changed – but now you would probably refer to the musician from the 90s rather than the 19th whale of the century. Over the past few days, Moby has put a great strain on the adage that "all advertising is good advertising" by repeatedly insisting that Natalie Portman and himself were a product, even though she says that they were not.

In his new memoirs, When It Fell Apart, Moby claims that he came out with Portman when he was 33 and she was 20, after meeting behind the scenes at one of her concerts. A memoir is traditionally considered a non-fiction work. However, it seems that the 53-year-old book is fanciful: Portman denied that the couple ever had a romantic relationship.

"I was surprised to learn that he qualified the very short time I knew with him for dating, because I remember well a much older man who has scary air with me, "Portman told Harper's Bazaar on Wednesday. She added that even though Moby was 20 years old at the time, "I certainly was not … I had just turned 18". The basic calculations prove it: there is no world in which Moby (born in 1965) would have been 33 years old when Portman (born in 1981) was 20 years old.

One would think that being called for hissing a teenager while you were in your thirties would be mortifying. One might think that the case is dropped and the news cycle continues. Moby, however, seems desperate that the whole world believes that he has gone out with a girl who has just graduated from high school. On Wednesday, he responded to Portman's denial by unearthing a photo of him, without a shirt, with an arm around her, and posting it on Instagram. The grinning smile of Portman on the picture is instantly familiar to all women; it's the face you play when you do not want to offend a guy who's flirting with you. It's the face you wear because you've been socialized to be nice and polite and you worry about the guy's reaction if you tell him too clearly that you have no interest in him anymore. This is the face you wear because you fear being dead.

All this seems to have avoided Moby, however, who considers that the photo is irrefutable proof that Portman was in him. "I recently read an article about gossiping in which Natalie Portman said we never went out with someone," he said in a legend. "It baffled us, as we even did with a date … I can not understand why it would actively falsify the truth about our involvement (even brief). The story as described in my book Then It Fell Apart is accurate. "

Then it got worse: Moby doubled his claims and sent back other edgy Instagram posts. "Sincerely, what should I do when people believe the accusations and not the evidence?", He wrote Thursday. In a legend, he claimed that Portman was lying and that he was receiving "threats of violence from his fans … that affect my business and my health." A few hours later, Moby published a photo of some trees in writing "Do you know what is good? This nature does not worry … attack me, slander, lie on me, in the meantime, I will try to save animals and prevent humans from destroying the only home we have. Goodbye."

The fact that Moby can not seem to understand that there is something wrong with engaging with a 33-year-old has a lot to say about the degree of normalization of the sexualization of girls in society. Indeed, Portman spoke of the "sexual terrorism" that she experienced as a young actor. In a speech at last year's Women's March, she said, "A countdown has been made to my local radio show until my 18th birthday – euphemistically, the date on which I 'll have the right to sleep with me'. budding tits in the comments. I very quickly understood, even at the age of 13, that if I expressed myself sexually, I would not feel safe and that men would feel entitled to discuss and discuss. To objectify my body in the face of my great discomfort. "

Moby's reaction to Portman's refutations is also a lecture in what is sometimes called "male misogyny". After all, Moby does not show up as a scary predator. It does not look threatening. he is vegan; he is politically progressive; he called artists like Eminem for his misogyny. Even though Moby may not have written misogynistic words, he is clearly not a feminist. He rejects the Portman version of events, for example, as "gossip". It is clear that you can not take a woman's memories seriously, it's just brainless gossip!

In his memoirs, Moby also describes his first interaction with Portman so as to make him look like a predator. Recounting their first encounter, he writes: "I was an excessive bald drinker and Natalie Portman was a beautiful movie star. But here it is in my dressing room, flirting with me. I was 33 years old and she was 20 years old, but it was her world. Poor little man-child, you are supposed to think. He was trapped by a young fox. She may have been a lot younger, but she had all the power. It's Moby who took the opportunity! He was just trying to save animals and stop humans from destroying our only home, and then Natalie Portman seduced him. Shame on her, you are supposed to think. Shame on her.

You know what's really bad? The fact that men like Moby strive to appear more awake than listening to women. What is really a shame is that a man like Moby can devote years of his life to promoting veganism, while treating women as if they were nothing more than a piece of meat.

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